Implications of Climate Change on Fishers

Abstract

Fishers, as an important part of the fisheries, are threatened by many effects of global warming, including changes in ocean currents, rainfall changes that affect lake levels and river flows, increasing frequency and severity o f storms, extreme events such as El Nino and hurricanes, and extreme floods and droughts. It can, therefore, be predicted that global fishers can be significantly affected by climate change which can be worse in future. There are some peer reviewed articles on impacts o f climate change on fish ahd fisheries, but limited synopsis have been found on impact of climate change on the fishers. The present work provides a concise rather than comprehensive review on the consequences of climate change on global fishers. However, fishers o f African continent attract more attention in future than other countries in this context. Different types of climate change impacts on fishers can be linked to the various elements of livelihoods frameworks such as impacts on assets and impacts on livelihoods activities. Commonly cited consequence o f climate change and variability is decreased revenues for fishers due to decline in total catch and stock abundance. This can also be the result o f the closure of fisheries activities during a weather anomaly related to climate change or the reduction of fishing days due to increased weather variability such as increased frequency of storms. Fishers’ vulnerability to climate change will largely be a function of their capacity to adapt. Fishers are mostly poor or very poor and often without access credit to / . cope with the shocks and trends. Their typically poor health and inadequate health care systems make them further vulnerable to extreme events and outbreaks of diseases. If so, climate change has some positive impacts on fisher communities, though this is not persistence. The climate change impacts on marine ecosystems cannot be easily controlled by engineering measures, and a general strategy to conserve the sensitive habitats both in quantity and in quality would be an appropriate precautionary adaptation to the climate change effects.